(Adds details, quotes) WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) - The Pentagon will keep pulling troops out of Iraq through July despite an increase in violence, but then will halt withdrawals to assess the security situation, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recent violence in Baghdad and Basra would not change plans to withdraw five combat brigades from the war zone, bringing the number of troops back to the level in Iraq before a "surge" of force last year. "Right now we're still on track for the fifth brigade to come out, the last of the surge brigades to come out, by the end of July and then the period of consolidation and evaluation will take place," Mullen told reporters at the Pentagon. Mullen would not say how long that period of assessment would last. He said security conditions in Iraq would dictate future troop withdrawals. Mullen's comments offered a preview of the military's expected message to Congress next week when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, updates legislators on the war. Petraeus has already made recommendations to President George W. Bush about the next stage of operations in Iraq. He is expected to tell lawmakers that the currently planned reduction in troops can continue through July, followed by an assessment period likely to last at least a month. Mullen noted that the violence seen last week in Basra created the kind of insecurity that military commanders will evaluate in determining whether the Pentagon can begin reducing troop levels again after the assessment period. "This was a particularly violent week, timeframe, as we know and it is the kind of violence and lack of security that would certainly drive an assessment of what we would do after that," Mullen said. (Reporting by Kristin Roberts, Editing by David Storey)
A U.S. soldier guards a helicopter in Mussayab, a predominately Shi'ite neighbourhood 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad April 2, 2008. The United States could quickly lose its security gains ...
